How Chris Kimsey resurrected Exile on Main St.'s lost tracks for the 2010 reissue

The biggest challenge wasn’t just removing tape hiss—it was figuring out how to finish songs the band had walked away from in 1972. Chris Kimsey, who was the assistant engineer on the original Exile on Main St. sessions and later became the Stones’ go-to producer, dove back into the vaults for the 2010 deluxe edition. He found multitracks and rough cassette mixes that hadn’t been touched in decades, some with sticky-shed syndrome or oxide flaking off.

Kimsey worked closely with Mick Jagger to decide which fragments deserved a second life. Tracks like “Plundered My Soul” and “Dancing in the Light” were essentially skeletons—drum beats, a guitar riff, maybe a guide vocal. Kimsey had to reconstruct them using original outtakes, overdubbing only where absolutely necessary to preserve